[Random picture of your R50]

Your rig looks huge! You got any closer up pics of it?

 

I do! I haven't gotten much for pictures on it recently, after doing more modifications and fixing some angles for the SFD. 6" SFD, 6" strut spacers in the front, .5" heavy duty OME front coils, heavy duty 2" rear lift springs, 4" rear spacers. Whole bunch of other suspension stuff to make sure it still rides smooth and doesn't break easy, and 33" mud tires. She's a big girl haha.

I have a couple photo albums on my Facebook that have some pictures of my offroading adventures and process of building everything, but it's not all updated yet as I just overhauled a lot of it recently.

https://www.facebook.com/cortland.haefele

Damn! Thats a gorgeous scene!

It really was. We got there JUST in time for the sunset and it was really cool. It's a super neat spot to go to at really any time of day, and at night when it's really dark, looks like you're just looking over the edge of the world, just a giant pit of darkness. Pretty neat.

[Rumble and Shake in 4WD?]

You might jack it up and spin the front left by hand and just see if you can feel or hear any CV noise or bearing play. Might also be good to check a few fasteners, make sure the alignment shop didn't leave something loose.

 

I had some issues with the transfer in my '95 not wanting to leave 4x and a flush and fill solved it. I didn't have your rumbling issues, though. Does sound driveshaft-related to me, though that doesn't explain the pulling or, unless I'm missing something here, the slow disengagement of the transfer.

It might be purely a mental thing for the pulling, as it didn't always happen. I'll try and get it up on a lift or something soon. I JUST changed the fluid in my transfer but it wouldn't hurt to flush. I found if I roll back a couple feet in reverse, the 4WD will disengage fine. Good point on the fasteners as well, as I just had an alignment done after correcting my spacers for my SFD and installing new springs and such, so it wouldn't hurt to check torque on everything.

Thanks for all the input, I'll keep things updated!

[Rumble and Shake in 4WD?]

Update: Got more snow last night, roads are nice and slick. I definitely notice less vibration past 35 mph up to maybe 45 (Wasn't really wanting to go that fast with the conditions this morning, however). The one biggest thing I notice is that the wheel seems to pull to the left a little, which doesn't happen in 2WD or at high speeds, and I just recently got an alignment. No grinding or slipping noises heard in the wells or cv axles, as far as I can tell when driving, so I don't believe anything's binding.

[Rumble and Shake in 4WD?]

Sounds like the front ujoint to me. Pop under there and jerk on the front driveshaft.

 

If that’s not it and it starts at 35mph; what does it do at 34.5mph? Is it completely smooth until BAM and it’s rumbling like crazy? Is there any onset to the rumble? If so, try to use the onset to locate the general area before the entire vehicle begins to resonate the vibrations.

 

I’m thinking it’s that ujoint man.. I hope that’s what it is anyway.

 

 

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That would definitely make sense.

If the front hubs are engaged, then the axles rotate and the front diff rotates too, but because it isn't engaged the front driveshaft shouldn't rotate nearly as fast as it would under load. Plus, on the trails in 4LO, it doesn't rotate very fast at all, since I'm not going over 10 mph generally on the trails I go on. It's a blizzard out here right now, just hit us and I'm at work, so I'll have to check it when I can...

[Random picture of your R50]

Not completely random, but a super cool sunset on Miller Rock 4x4 Trail here in Colorado with my R50 and my friend's Cherokee.

[Rumble and Shake in 4WD?]

I have a 2001 Pathfinder, 6.5" Lift and SFD, Old Man Emu .5" Medium Duty Lift Coils, 33" mud tires, brand new CV axles, manual locking hubs, new tie rods, new struts, new ball joints, alignment in spec... and yet, faced with a new problem.

Winter finally hit us in Longmont Colorado, and we got some snow and a good sheet of ice on the roads for a day. Other than on the trails in 4LO, I haven't needed my 4WD on the roads since I did the SFD and added the bigger tires, so I have never faced this problem because there's no reason to use 4WD on dry roads. As for the issue, when I put the transfercase into 4HI, everything is smooth up until about 35 mph. Anywhere above 35 mph, the whole car (mostly front end) begins to shake violently, as if the tires were all falling off or something. No noise from the suspension or axles, they aren't binding, but it's VERY aggressive with the shaking and vibrating.

I've done some troubleshooting. I locked my front hubs and put it in 2WD, just to see if it had anything to do with the axles rotating with the wheels and so on. I could easily drive with no shaking or vibration at high speeds with the hubs locked, felt no different than when they're disengaged. One thing that was noticeable, however, was that it took quite some time for the tcase to actually disengage 4WD, it wouldn't do it parked, low speeds, high speeds, or anything, it would take over 5 minutes of the shifter being in 2WD before it would disengage finally, which is an issue I have never observed before.

On slick roads with ice and such, like what was on the roads the other morning, people really weren't going above 35 mph, and as long as I was on slick roads, I never noticed the vibrations. When I got on dry roads that parted the sheets of ice, that's when I would feel the shaking suddenly.

I understand that in 4WD, the front wheels pull while the rear push, so it can cause imbalances on dry roads. The reason this is shocking for me at the moment is because I remember when it was nearly stock, I could hit dry roads in 4WD up to 60 mph or so with no issues, but then again, it wasn't lifted and didn't have 33" tires on it...

 

Am I answering my own question here? Is it the fact that it's lifted, leveled, and has bigger tires that makes this a problem? The fact that it takes so long to shift out of 4WD makes it rather difficult to switch back and fourth from dry and slippery roads. I can handle fine with 2WD but the security of 4WD is definitely much nicer in these conditions.

 

Any advice is, as always, appreciated. I have checked most everything I can, having swapped and rebuilt a lot of this thing at this point, but I'd love some more experienced people to add in any advice.

Thanks!